Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of lying when he said on Sunday that her government had sent names of only 6,000 farmers, that too without their bank account details, for the Centre’s PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme.
“Narendra Modi has picked up a habit of telling lies…We have already verified 2.5 lakh farmers of 6 lakh farmers (applications) sent to us for verification. The Centre should send money to these 2.5 lakh farmers immediately,” said the chief minister while replying to budget discussions that she had tabled in the Assembly last Friday.
Sources in the administration said that the chief minister decided to react as the Prime Minister had alleged during his political rally in Haldia on Sunday that Bengal had sent names of 6,000 farmers when 25 lakh farmers had applied for benefits under the central scheme.
Modi had also said that the Centre could not send money to even the 6,000 farmers, whose names the state had forwarded, as the state government did not send their bank account details.
The Centre’s minimum income support scheme that ensures an annual aid of Rs 6,000 to each eligible farmer is a thorn in New Delhi-Nabanna relations. Initially, the state government had declined to be part of the project. More recently, the Mamata Banerjee administration changed its decision and informed the Centre that it wanted to be a part of the scheme, for which it had to validate the farmer applications.
Sources in the know said that Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar had requested the Bengal state government to verify 22 lakh applicants under the Centre’s scheme last November.
Mamata, who earlier rejected the scheme saying the state has a much better farmer scheme (Krishak Bandhu), agreed to verify applicants after Opposition parties, especially the BJP, started mounting pressure on the state government to join the scheme.
“The chief minister realised that Bengal’s farmers were willing to get the benefits of the central scheme after 22 lakh farmers applied for the scheme through a portal launched by the Centre. The chief minister wrote a letter to Tomar making it clear that the state was ready to verify the farmers as she does not want to deprive any of the farmers,” said an official.
In December, the Centre asked the state to depute a nodal officer who would be given details of applicants to verify the farmers who applied for the central scheme.
“The agriculture department had held a meeting in December to finalise how the verification process would be carried out and it was decided that the state would match the farmers’ details with its database of Krishak Bandhu where 50,000 farmers have already registered,” said an official, and added that the verification could be hastened by matching the details with the Krishak Bandhu database. “But it seems that the issue is being politicised ahead of the polls,” the official added.
Sources said a meeting would be held this week to expedite the verification process. “We have to find out a way on how the details of an applicant, whose name is not registered with Krishak Bandhu, can be verified. It would require physical verification of the applicant’s details by sending officials to his or her address. It would be a tough ask ahead of elections,” said a source.